Mission & Values

Mission

Wittenberg University provides a liberal arts education dedicated to intellectual inquiry and wholeness of person within a diverse residential community. Reflecting its Lutheran heritage, Wittenberg challenges students to become responsible global citizens, to discover their callings, and to lead personal, professional, and civic lives of creativity, service, compassion, and integrity.

Our Values

Liberal Arts

For more than 170 years, Wittenberg's curriculum has centered on the liberal arts as an education that develops the individual's capacity to think, read, and communicate with precision, understanding, and imagination. We are dedicated to education in the core disciplines of the arts and sciences and in pre-professional education grounded in the liberal arts.

Intellectual Inquiry

Wittenberg embraces the life of the mind. We promote high standards of artistic, scholarly, and scientific inquiry among our students and faculty. Teaching and research at Wittenberg emphasize the discovery of new knowledge as well as the learning of received wisdom. Intellectual inquiry is enhanced by the thoughtful participation of diverse peoples with diverse perspectives. We are committed to bringing to the lives of our students an enduring passion for learning, which requires risk-taking, persistence, reflection, and high ethical standards.

Wholeness of Person

Members of the Wittenberg community support each other in the personal search for balance that characterizes wholeness of person. To promote leadership, confidence, and community engagement, we help every student develop in harmony intellectual capabilities, aesthetic sense, physical well-being, spiritual identity, and social relationships.

Community of Learners

A purposeful and intentionally diverse community, centered on a residential campus, sustains education in the liberal arts and the exploration of complex and competing ideas within an ethos of accountability and support. From this community, we serve and engage our urban home of Springfield and the broader communities around the globe. By affirming the dignity of every person and fostering a spirit of respect, we create and expand opportunities to pursue knowledge in and out of the classroom.

Lutheran Heritage

Wittenberg expresses its Lutheran heritage through its continuing relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, its welcome to people of all beliefs and backgrounds, its commitment to academic freedom and excellence, its exploration of the relationship between faith and learning, its promotion of campus worship life, its encouragement of reflection upon religious views and values, and its commitment to service to the community and the world.

Global Citizenship

A Wittenberg education prepares students for the challenge and responsibility of global citizenship. Through our curriculum, study-abroad opportunities, and the enriching presence of international students, we engage the complexity of the human experience, learning about and from cultures around the world. We are committed to providing opportunities for students to interact with others of widely different backgrounds, seeking common solutions to problems facing our world.

Calling

Wittenberg values the unique contributions each individual can make in responding to the needs of neighbors both near and far. We encourage all students to discern their vocations and to understand the meaningful connection between self-fulfillment and service to the world.

Creativity

Creativity is central to the study of the arts and sciences and to problem solving in all areas of inquiry. Creativity requires the free and open exchange of ideas, the ability to value and imagine different perspectives, and the intellectual tools necessary to make personal contributions in any area of study. We are committed to providing opportunities for students to explore new areas of knowledge and to form the intellectual associations supportive of the creative life.

Service

Service provides an intentional opportunity to give back to the world and to promote social justice. Service requires us to learn about community needs, about who we are, and about what we can contribute. We are dedicated as faculty, staff, and students to advancing the common good as local citizens and as members of the global community.

Compassion

Compassion requires a broad knowledge of ourselves and of others, and of all our joys and ills. It combines an awareness of suffering with a desire to respond. At Wittenberg, we educate the mind to understand and we educate the heart to care.

Integrity

Integrity means honesty and fidelity to the highest ethical standards, which are fundamental to teaching, learning, and personal growth. We encourage our students to pursue knowledge and truth with moral courage and reflection, and so to live their lives.